The major projects
After a long restoration campaign, the royal castle of Villers-Cotterêts became the Cité internationale de la langue française. A cultural and living place entirely dedicated to the French language and francophone cultures.
A presidential project at the castle of Villers-Cotterêts
From the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 to the future Cité, the castle symbolizes the eminently political dimension that presides over the destinies of the French language. Launched in 2018, the project was led by the National Monuments Centre, which provided the restoration and prepared the programming, together with the Ministry of Culture.
Making the French language sensitive and intelligible to the general public is the purpose of this totally new project. It embodies a renewed policy of French and plurilingualism, enshrined in the presidential plan for the French language and plurilingualism presented in 2018 in response to the expectations of today’s and tomorrow’s francophones.
Called to reflect the realities of French as a language of sharing, creation, innovation and cohesion within a national and international, but also territorial, the Cité will open its doors soon. It will be a multidisciplinary place of discovery and encounter (permanent visit routes, temporary exhibitions, shows, conferences), of learning (training in French, laboratory of educational innovation) and of work (residencies for artists, researchers and entrepreneurs).
To go further:
Dedicated to the adventure of French, the permanent course will offer immersion in the heart of the language. Interview with Barbara Cassins and Xavier North, members of the scientific commission.
Barbara Cassin is a philosopher and philologist, a member of the Académie française, and Xavier North is Honorary Inspector General of Cultural Affairs, former Delegate General for the French Language and Languages of France.
What will the permanent visit route consist of?
X. N. | The course was designed to make knowledge about the French language sensitive, while offering moments of wonder, discovery and learning. French will be understood in its historical dimension but also in its relations with other languages. The problems of the past will always be linked to today’s questions.
B. C. | This journey raises more questions than it answers. When it comes to language policy, we are always on the edge. Events, language practices, will be presented in the ambivalence of their causes and effects. Starting with the ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts by which Francis I made an entire nation escape from the influence of the Latin of the clerics: it allowed the litigant to understand what happened to him. But what then happens to all those who speak, not Latin, but those «patois» that the French Revolution wants to eradicate in the name of the lights of reason? Today the Toubon law, which constrains the use of French, at the same time promotes terminological enrichment and translation. And the iron language of colonial French can become spoils of war and language of emancipation.
How does it relate to the city’s overall project?
X. N. | Each part of the exhibition will carry a simple message: French is a “world language”, worked by diversity. In its language materiality, it is a continuous invention. It is also an eminently political subject: French has always been the business of the state. These three sequences outline the cultural project that the city will develop.
B. C. | An international city of the French language attaches itself to French spoken outside France and as a language among other languages. With the ambition of making people think: what do you think of what you see?